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When I picked up this book I didn't need to read more than the first few pages to know that this book was going to CHANGE MY LIFE! If you read one book for your business and life this year it needs to be Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
The book is based on the idea that, assuming you live to be eighty, you'll only live about four thousand weeks. The question is what are you going to do with that time? Instead of offering new tips on how to cram more into your day, the author questions why we feel the need to. He does this with some history lessons juxtaposed with Buddhist philosophy. My favorite kind of book is this one―a book that doesn't offer magic solutions to life because there aren't any.
My biggest aha moment when reading this book was how my constant urge to use my time productively is taking away from my quality of life. I've always bought into the idea that the more I fine tune my time management the more I'll be on top of my todo list, which has meant constant striving to do more in less time. This book challenges that theory, by suggesting that getting more done is just a way of inviting … more to do. And it's true. The more I achieve, the more I have always added to my todo list.
My key takeway was that I'm never going to have enough time in my life to do it all, and in accepting this I find freedom. As Burkeman would say “The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things". For me, in this phase of life, neglecting the right things, means deciding on what I'm going to fail at in advance.
For me this was a much needed reality check on our culture's crazy assumptions around work, productivity and living a meaningful life.
Reading this book was a great way to use a few hours of my four Thousand weeks! I recommend you read it too!